


Foul Creatures of the Night (and Other Similarly Pretentious Epithets)

by ckret2



Category: Morbius: The Living Vampire, Venom (Comics)
Genre: Cannibalistic Thoughts, Crush confessions, Ficlet Collection, First Dates, M/M, Mutual Pining, Other, Polyamory, Pre-Poly, Pre-Relationship, Secret Crush, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-03-01
Packaged: 2021-02-28 07:00:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22659715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ckret2/pseuds/ckret2
Summary: Two (or three, depending on your perspective) villain-killing horror-movie-escapee edgy-90s-goth-looking antiheroes with weird dietary needs awkwardly hang out and pretend they don't like each other as much as they do.The symbiote would rather like the both of them to pick up the pace. And iftheywon't, it'll just have to take matters into its own gooey little hands.Ficlets written to the prompts forSymbruary 2020that also feature Morbius.
Relationships: Eddie Brock/Michael Morbius/Venom Symbiote, Eddie Brock/Venom Symbiote, Michael Morbius/Venom Symbiote
Comments: 16
Kudos: 54
Collections: SYMBRUARY





	1. Weird And Very Specific Dietary Needs

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [@symbruary](symbruary.tumblr.com) Day 10: "friendship." I'm actually surprised it took me this long to write a ficlet featuring Morbius because like. I ship that. But I've got a couple more planned. I'm gonna stick my Venom & Morbius fics in their own AO3 fic separate from my other symbruary fics, since there’s gonna be a few together.
> 
> Now to be clear I'm only familiar with Morbius from the miniseries & events he appears in with Venom and it's been a hot minute since I read those so * _makes a wiggly hand at his characterization_ *

"There you are!" Venom said, rounding a corner to reveal two huddled forms: the source of the sounds of violence they'd been following through the drainage tunnels for the last five minute. "Now, you miscreant—I don't know what acts of vile villainy you've come down here to perpetrate, but the citizens of the subterranean system of this city are under _our_ protection. So get off that innocent—"

The assailant looked up from the victim they were bent over, blood coating the bottom half of their pallid face, eyes wide, hair wild.

"Oh, Morbie!" Venom relaxed. "We've got to stop meeting like this! You know: unexpectedly, underground, in the dark, under circumstances where it'd be all too easy for us to mistake each other for foes—"

"Venom?" Morbius shook his head, the eerily inhuman look in his eyes fading.

"The two and only. Are you in the mood for company, or if we stick around are you gonna act like a pain in the neck?"

The vampire clearly had no sense of humor, because that pun deserved _at least_ a chuckle. He turned away. "Give me a moment; I'm almost finished dining."

"Sure thing." Venom leaned against a concrete wall, arms and ankles crossed. Morbius hesitated, as if he'd expected Venom to leave, but then bent over his unfinished meal.

Once he'd straightened up and wiped off his face, he said, "I'm sorry you had to see that."

"Why? We've seen it before."

"In the heat of battle. When I'm using my fangs as a weapon. Not as... as..."

Venom offered, "Straws?"

"Not what I was going for."

"Knives? But knives are a weapon too," Venom said. "Forks?"

"You know what, I—Straws was fine."

"Straws, then. Anyway—doesn't bother us," Venom said, shrugging. "I mean, he _deserved_ it, right?"

"Of course he did. He came down here with two friends to try to harass transients."

"Then no problem." Venom's face lit up. "Hey—do you still need help dealing with the other two, or...?"

"No, I... dealt with them first. This one simply got a head start before I could catch him."

"Ah." Venom sank back against the wall again, disappointed.

"I can't imagine why it wouldn't bother you."

Morbius was still looking at his meal instead of at Venom, back turned and shoulders hunched. Had Venom stumbled on him on a broody night—that was like a _thing_ for vampires, right? Blood-drinking, bad sunburns, and brooding?—or was he just that embarrassed over being watched during dinner?

Maybe they should be taking the conversation a bit more seriously, then. "We think you probably _can_ imagine why. _Most_ people know about our weird dietary needs."

Morbius finally glanced back at them. "Those rumors are true, then? I was never sure if they were or if it was the usual stereotypes and slander against the monstrous."

"Half true. We've got a couple of much less gruesome ways to get our vitamins and minerals, but if we skip a couple of snacks... well, your average human skull starts looking like a tasty little bonbon: crunchy shell on the outside, delicious chewy filling..."

Morbius grimaced. "You have a very... evocative way with words."

"Used to be a journalist."

"All the same—does that not... disgust you?" He got to his feet, finally turning to face Venom fully. "It's true that neither one of us can be called fully _human_ anymore, but there's still some element of _humanity_ inside of us. Is the humanity in you not repulsed?"

Venom hesitated. "Huh. That got philosophical fast."

"It's something I spend a lot more time thinking about than having a chance to talk over with someone else."

That was fair. Venom _had_ someone to talk over those questions with—the two of them always together, always listening to each other's fears and worries.

"We're a little different from you," Venom said. "You're a human that's been altered, we're a human that's been added too."

"Granted," Morbius said, "but even so..."

Venom held up a finger. "Hold on a moment, we're getting to our point," they said. "One half of us has lived countless lives on countless worlds around countless stars, shared lives with countless species that feed countless different ways. Cannibalism, even between members of a sapient species, isn't strange or horrific to it. Just another thing some aliens do."

Morbius drew his head back, blinking at being called the alien—yeah, some humans got like that, had to wrap their heads around the idea that _they_ were the "other" to somebody—but he didn't comment.

"The other half of us... is still human, yes. And the humanity in Eddie _is_ repulsed when he discovers that he's consumed the flesh of his own kind." They had to hold back a shudder at one of their more vivid memories. "There's a perverse delight in it—the taste of something you can feel is... is spiritually tainting you just for tasting it. A poisonous forbidden fruit. The horror of knowing what you've done balanced by the relief of knowing you're now past the fear that you _might_ do it and the resignation that you _must_." (Morbius's expression darkened as Venom spoke—he clearly didn't like that he understood what Eddie felt, but he _did_ understand.) "Yes, Eddie knows that repulsion. But he only feels that repulsion toward _himself_. How can he feel it toward _you_ , when he can _also_ see you the way his other can, not as a high spiritual creature that has fallen from grace but as a blameless humble animal doing as its instincts urge it to feed? How can he feel it toward you when he knows the same shame and guilt you feel, and that you wouldn't if you didn't have to? Are you revolted by him the way you're revolted by yourself?"

Morbius frowned, stroking his chin as he put serious thought into the question. "Generally, no," he said, "unless you're comparing skulls to bonbons."

Venom laughed loudly. "Sorry! The comparison comes naturally to us. Chocolate is our primary chemical substitute."

"Chocolate?!" Morbius barked. "You get to choose between cannibalism and _chocolate?!_ Oh, of all the lucky curses!"

"You know, it is, isn't it?"

"And here I am, _empathizing_ with you over our shared lost humanity, and your darkest cravings are satisfied with chocolate!" Morbius waved them off as he turned from them, lips curled in exaggerated disgust. "Away with you. _Chocolate._ " He stalked down the tunnel.

They followed after him. They'd assume he actually wanted them to leave if he said it again. "Have you ever tried looking for substitutes?" they asked cheerfully. "Blood sausage, maybe?"

" _Yes_ , actually. With that _exact_ food."

"No good?"

"Would I be here instead of robbing a butcher's shop if it worked?"

"I don't know—maybe you thought these three bullies you dealt with deserved it more than the poor butcher that was going to have to pay for the broken windows?"

Morbius rolled his eyes.

Venom grinned and kept following him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Original post available on [tumblr](https://ckret2.tumblr.com/post/190765541022/weird-and-very-specific-dietary-needs). Comments/reblogs there are very welcome (as are comments here)!


	2. Eddie Eats A Map

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [@symbruary](symbruary.tumblr.com) Day 11: "romance". Featuring Morbius again because I've been meaning to bring some Venom/Morbius into the world for forever.
> 
> Honestly this is less "actual romance" and more "being friends and also there's secret attraction that might be one-sided" but like... it's pre-romance. Also Eddie mentions being married to symby so there's your romance. Also this was supposed to be two scenes and the second scene was going to have more romance but then this got long, I'll use my Free Space day to write the second scene or something.
> 
> My friends, I've never read an issue actually set in Monster Metropolis, my description is based off the wiki and posts I’ve seen other people make on it. Please forgive any inaccuracies.

Eddie studied the crude map.

"I'm trusting you with this," Morbius said solemnly. "Both not to abuse this information and not to let it fall into the wrong hands. Memorize and then destroy the map—"

Without bothering to check if anyone else in the 24 hour diner was looking their way, the symbiote stretched Venom's mouth across Eddie's face and they stuffed the map into their maw.

Morbius froze mid-sentence, mouth open behind his disposable face mask.

Venom slurped down the fang-shredded paper and then grinned at Morbius for just a second before their fangs receded back into Eddie's face and their skin melted and oozed back into Eddie's pores. Eddie wiped some green slime off his chin with his thumb and took a sip from his mug of hot chocolate, smirking.

Morbius glanced around the diner to make sure nobody noticed—the whole point of Morbius's wearing a mask and Venom's keeping their slimier half stored on the inside had been so that they could meet on the street level _without_ immediately being pegged as monsters—but the other three late night/early morning diners looked half asleep at their tables and the waitress was boredly watching her phone. Morbius turned back to Eddie and stammered, "Yeah, that—that accomplishes the task. But you shouldn't do that again."

"You were saying?" Eddie prompted, digging into his omelet. "About Monster Metropolis?"

"Right." Morbius tried to collect his thoughts. "This city has already suffered more than its share of traumas. Just a few years ago it was nearly destroyed. I know all you've done to help and protect the dinosaur-people—the Moloids have brought a couple to the metropolis and they speak very highly of you. I know you _can_ keep this metropolis secret as well."

Eddie nodded, slowly lifting a bite of omelet to his mouth. He didn't comment until he'd swallowed. "I’m not sure we like how you say 'can,' there. Like you know we _can_ but aren't sure we _will._ "

Morbius hesitated. "Not everyone in this metropolis is what you might personally consider 'innocent.'"

" _Ah._ "

"But we protect them anyway," Morbius insisted. "Not from the consequences of their actions, but from the persecution _based on their nature_ that they would face on the surface. When they cause trouble, we handle it internally. We won't have our city exposed to the surface world again and its cruelty again. I'm asking you to agree to that much."

Something in Eddie's expression shifted at the word _persecution._ Morbius was sure he had his empathy then—hopefully the other's, too, although it was hard to tell. In all the times Morbius had overheard Venom talking to themself, he couldn't recall ever hearing them disagree with each other; but surely it had to happen; and he was well aware that, as often as they agreed, their thoughts weren't identical. Why would they need to talk to themselves at all if they were?

And every once in a while Eddie said something in a slightly _different_ voice—it wasn't as obvious when Venom spoke, but it was when Eddie spoke—and Morbius got the impression that he wasn't sharing his own thoughts so much as conveying something his other had asked him to say. He didn't think in those moments the alien had actually seized control of Eddie's vocal cords to speak its on mind, just asked Eddie to speak _for_ it; but the difference was still audible.

When Morbius was around Venom, he had long since gotten past the eerie feeling that an uninvited third party was listening in on a one-on-one conversation, and instead moved on to the entirely new eerie feeling that he was having a conversation with two people but one of them was dead silent except to occasionally whisper in the other's ear.

"We notice you gave us the map before checking whether we'd agree to your terms," Eddie said. "And you're not getting the map back. Why the show of trust?"

Morbius had been hoping Venom _wouldn't_ look that gift horse in the mouth. But, since they'd asked... "For three reasons," he said. "First... if I'd been considering this a few years ago, before you two..." He puzzled over the appropriate wording for a moment. "Separated?" He thought _broke up_ might sound too intimate.

But Eddie nodded in confirmation. "Temporarily separated to work on our marriage."

 _Marriage_. That word hit heavily. He pushed his own reaction aside. Oh, okay, he should have leaned toward _more_ intimate. Talking to Eddie and his other was a constant exercise in reminding himself to underestimate the nature of their relationship a little less. "Before you temporarily separated, I wouldn't have given you the map. But the person—people?—that you are now, I believe I can trust with it. But I'm having to take it on faith that you're going to keep being who you are now rather than who you were then. If you get my meaning."

Eddie smiled tiredly. "Believe me, that's what we want, too." He sighed. "All we've ever wanted—before and after our separation—is to be a hero together. It's... just been a process getting there. You know," he shrugged, looking down at his half-eaten meal, "had to work on ourselves a while, had to work on our relationship..."

Morbius nodded, trying to look less mystified than he was from wondering what an alien goo had to work on. He supposed anything with sentience and emotions must have personal issues worth working on—he just couldn't imagine what they actually were. That silent third participant in the conversation he knew so little about. "The change is evident. Both from seeing you in in the news and from talking to you."

Eddie smiled sheepishly. It wasn't a common look on his face. "I'm going to take that as approval of where we are now rather than as an indictment of where we were then."

"That's how I meant it."

"Good."

"And second," Morbius said, figuring they were probably more than ready to move on from even this relatively gentle critique of their (comparatively) wild days, "Monster Metropolis is, first and foremost, a haven for the nonhuman people that humanity considers monsters. And your other is nothing if not seen as a monster. If it ever needs somewhere safe to run, I want it to be able to find the metropolis." Morbius didn't know a lot about what Venom was doing when they weren't in the news—and even then, their newsworthy appearances were less _in-depth interviews_ and more _cryptid sightings—_ but he got the impression Eddie and the symbiote spent more time than either would like getting violently separated and scrambling to reconnect. That wasn't easy when you had to live a life restricted to dark alleyways and deep tunnels. Maybe Monster Metropolis could make it easier for them to find each other again—or at least give the symbiote a haven where it could hide and a community that could help it locate its missing home/partner. "Of course, you're welcome there too, Eddie, I don't want to slight you—but Monster Metropolis _does_ primarily exist for the monsters."

At first, Morbius thought Eddie had flinched; then realized it was more of a ripple, his very skin itself—or something under his skin—stirring.

"What is it?"

"Was that visible? Sorry." Eddie picked up his hot chocolate again, noted it was empty, and picked up Morbius's. (Morbius had thought he should order something to look a little less strange, and Eddie had told him he wouldn't mind a second drink.) "You uh, surprised us—particularly my other. It's not used to _it_ being the one to receive the invitation and _me_ being its 'plus one' guest. In fact, it usually only happens when someone in a lab coat wants to prod it a while and hope that a superpower falls out." Eddie had that voice on—the one Morbius thought meant he was reporting the symbiote's thoughts rather than his own. It sounded just slightly more _professional_ —like a journalist reporting a paraphrase of someone else's statements rather than giving his own opinion. He took a sip before giving Morbius a wan smile. "You got a Nobel for some kind of biochemistry thing, right? You wouldn't happen to be doing any kind of research that might benefit from an amorphous alien that can alter its host on a cellular level, would you?"

Morbius would be lying if he said he'd never wondered if there was a distant chance the symbiote might be able to help with his own condition—but he certainly wasn't wondering it _right now._ "I'm inviting you as a guest, not as a test subject." He meant that comment directed to the symbiote, not to Eddie—would that be obvious to them? Was it even appropriate for him to speak directly to the symbiote? It was much easier, psychologically speaking, to direct comments to the person visibly sitting in front of him as though asking Eddie to pass the message on; but the symbiote was sitting in front of him too. Why should he speak to Eddie instead of to it?

Eddie twitched in surprise again. For a moment, the surfaces of his eyes were covered in porcelain white and his grin was filled with sharp teeth. Message received, apparently. "Every once in a while, we meet a scientist we can trust. We think you're probably one of them."

"Thank you. I'd like to be."

Eddie's face was back to normal when he returned to his omelet. "So what's the third?"

"The what?"

"You said there were three reasons you gave us the map?"

Oh right he had said that. He shouldn't have said that. "Yes—right," he said. "Third. I've found that I... Your company is pleasant, when we cross paths." He was careful to understate just _how much_ he'd found himself growing fond of their infrequent meetings. He wasn't sure how welcome a full confession would be. ("Our marriage," Eddie had said. How literal was that? Morbius had already assumed Venom came as a package deal—Eddie and symbiote both—but the word "marriage" implied a certain level of unavailability, didn't it? Not that his hopes had ever been high—nor his expectations even fully conceptualized—but...) "But we only cross paths rarely—and usually only when one crisis or another has driven us outside our usual haunts. I thought it might be nice to... hang out outside of work, as it were?"

Eddie snorted. "You don't look like the kind of man who tends to 'hang out,'" he said. "You don't even look like the kind of man who says the _words_ 'hang out.'"

"You—don't look like the kind of man who drinks hot chocolate," said Morbius, stupidly, mainly so that he had _some_ kind of retort.

Eddie considered that, then shrugged, as if to say _fair enough_. "You like our company enough that you're willing to risk your monster sanctuary over it?"

"No," Morbius said sharply. "I'm willing to risk it for the first two reasons. Still, your company is... a contributing factor."

"Huh." Eddie drank down the rest of his hot chocolate. "Flattering."

Morbius grimaced. (He was glad for his mask.) He thought that could have gone over better.

"Guess we'll have to make a visit soon then. Are you going to be around in the next few days?"

That had gone over better than he thought. "I don't have a set schedule, but I try to visit the metropolis at least a couple times a week."

"Sounds like our schedule. The hard lives of busy heroes, huh?"

Morbius wouldn't have picked _heroes_ as the first word that fit the three of them—monsters, more likely—or freaks—but there was something comforting about the fact that Venom did. Even if their history with heroism was somewhat checkered. "Afraid so."

"Well, we'll keep swinging by when we're free. _Eventually_ we'll both be around at the same time, right?"

"Eventually." Morbius was well-known enough in Monster Metropolis that Venom would be able to just ask around to find out whether he was in town; and Venom stood out enough, even among monsters, that Morbius would be able to just as easily ask about him.

"Sounds like a plan." Eddie turned and waved his hand, catching the waitress's eye. "Hey. Separate checks, please."

"You want me to pay for the hot chocolate you drank?"

"You ordered it," Eddie said, smirking. "We're halfway to broke and we're also paying for an omelet, you can cover a hot chocolate."

Morbius gave him an affronted look. But he sighed and dug into his pocket for his wallet when the waitress dropped their checks off.

Once she was out of earshot again, Eddie asked wryly, "Regret saying you want to hang out with us yet?"

"No," Morbius said, "although you do a fine job of trying to make me regret it at least once per meeting."

Eddie smirked again—this time, the fangs were back. "I guess we'll have to keep trying."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I said I planned two scenes but uhhh, it's late. Next one in the next few days. Anyway this is a fine standalone piece, enjoy.
> 
> Original post available on [tumblr](https://ckret2.tumblr.com/post/190784333532/eddie-eats-a-map). Comments/reblogs there are very welcome (as are comments here)!


	3. Eddie’s like but does he LIKE us like us and Symby’s like he’s got fangs take a chance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for [@symbruary](symbruary.tumblr.com) Day 15, free day. So I decided to write a part 2 to the prior chapter. It was only fair that I demonstrate that Venom is secretly into Morbius too.
> 
> Also in canon Eddie always gets crushes on girls and the symbiote either quickly emotionally tags along or slowly emotionally tags along, so I thought it’d be nice if the symbiote got the crush and Eddie is the one who slowly emotionally tags along.
> 
> Bouncing wildly back and forth between giving the symbiote a brain-voice and just mixing its thoughts and Eddie’s together all willy-nilly in the narration is fun.

**You like him, Eddie.**

Eddie grumbled in acknowledgment.

**Like him too.**

Eddie grumbled louder.

They’d just finished having a midnight meal with Morbius, who’d invited them to visit Monster Metropolis—partially to give the symbiote another potential safe haven, but partially to socialize.

And as a consequence, Venom had spent the last hour sitting on the railing of a dark fire escape, pondering over the conversation, trying to figure out _what kind_ of socialization Morbius was asking for.

They had concluded that they couldn’t conclude what his exact intentions had been. It had all been rather ambiguous.

The symbiote was of the strong opinion that they should remove the ambiguity posthaste.

 **Should ask him out.** The symbiote was basically vibrating with eagerness. On an emotional level. Not a physical one. A bunch of stretched out goo vibrating between Eddie’s organs and atop his semi-dissolved skin would probably gently rattle apart the fire escape.

It was a lot more excited than Eddie would have expected over the thought of a date. “Dear… _without_ checking my memories, what do you think a date that involves two humans would consist of?” He was somewhat concerned that it was picturing what _their_ date nights were like.

The symbiote eagerly pushed over a pile of mental images. A relaxing moonlit walk through New York City’s most crime-ridden streets, looking for wrongdoers to thwart. Splitting a romantic dinner for two—Morbius could have the blood and Venom could have the brains, so nobody would have to fight over the good bits. Pressing their mouths together and demonstrating the deadly-dangerous razor-sharpness of their fangs on each other’s lips and tongues.

Venom’s (admittedly already rather vacant) gaze went totally blank. “Okay. That’s actually pretty nice.”

And while they were going on the moonlit walk the symbiote could stretch over both of their hands and connect their thoughts. They could feel each other’s feelings, wouldn’t even have to speak. Very romantic.

“Hmm…”

They could ask if Morbius was interested in doing what Eddie called the Weird Stuff.

Venom almost fell off the railing.

It would be even weirder with a third person!

“Maybe save the Weird Stuff for the second date,” Venom mumbled. The symbiote’s interest was surprising to Eddie. Typically it more or less jumped on board with Eddie’s attraction, even if wasn’t always easy to untangle that way. But it liked Morbius itself?

**Like him better than Beck or Anne.**

Ouch. Well, the memories of _both_ those relationships put a firm stop to Eddie’s Weird Stuff thoughts.

**Sorry.**

Why was the symbiote so interested in Morbius? Not that it shouldn’t be—and not that Eddie wasn’t, too—but it was unusual for Eddie to be the one following the symbiote’s lead. It was typically slower than Eddie to show attraction outside of that-would-make-a-nice-host attraction. (The symbiote was mildly alarmed to discover Eddie recognized when it was doing that. Eddie pointed out that it was hard not to notice when the symbiote was making eyes at someone with a cozy-looking rib cage when it was using Eddie’s eyes.) So why was it so interested in Morbius?

Because Venom looked normal to Morbius. Because Morbius understood what it was like to have a hunger he needed to control in order to fit into society and that made other humans fear him. Because Morbius looked at the symbiote—the symbiote, independent from its host, independent from anyone else—as a monster, but to Morbius “monstrosity” didn’t mean it needed to be contained and controlled, but sheltered and protected.

“Of course,” Venom said quietly. Of course. Not that Eddie hadn’t noticed and appreciated those things, but… he hadn’t quite realized how rare they were. And they _were_ rare. Weren’t they?

Plus his fangs were hot.

A grin stretched across Venom’s face. “His teeth aren’t quite as impressive as ours,” they said, “but they _are_ cute.”

Cute. Not a thought Eddie would have expected out of himself, once upon a time. To think, the first time he’d gotten married he’d thought he was straight. It wasn’t until the _second_ time he got married that he realized how… how small and arbitrary and meaningless the narrow boundaries he’d once lived in were when it came to love. It had taken falling in love with someone with no shape and no gender before he had gradually been able to look past the shapes and genders humans came in.

He still sometimes wondered whether his other had helped him realize something—something latent, or something suppressed perhaps—within his own psyche; or if its influence had changed him somehow, rewritten something in his mind to view other humans more like the way the symbiote viewed them, the same way it minutely changed his body chemistry.

 **Didn’t rewrite your mind!** The symbiote paused. **Probably. Not on purpose. Never tried to.**

If it had, wanting to kiss a vampire wasn’t the strangest urge the symbiote had accidentally given him.

Some small part of Eddie still saw those separate categories of humans that were arbitrary to the symbiote; women still caught his attention more frequently than men. Maybe that was another reason why, this one time, his own interest had developed more slowly than the symbiote’s.

But it had developed?

“Yes,” Venom said. “We both like him.”

**So ask him out!**

“We don’t know if _he_ likes _us._ ”

**We’ll find out when we ask him!**

“But if he doesn't—”

“Buddy,” said a man leaning out a window onto the fire escape, “you’ve been talking yourself in circles over this guy for an hour. Either go ask him out or go brood somewhere else so I can sleep, will ya?”

Venom started, getting off the railing to stand on the fire escape properly. “Uh. Sure.”

“This neighborhood, I swear…” The man slammed his window shut.

Venom shot a web line across the street and swung away. Okay. They’d ask him. At some point. Once they thought up an appropriate approach.

But first, they’d see how this visit to Monster Metropolis went.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Original post available on [tumblr](https://ckret2.tumblr.com/post/190851858437/eddies-like-but-does-he-like-us-like-us-and). Comments/reblogs there are very welcome (as are comments here)!


	4. Olympic Gold Metalist in Speed Dating

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm the founder and president of the Let The Symbiote Pursue Venom's Love Interests Rather Than Just Tag Along On Eddie's Crushes club. This fic is my club manifesto. Also I haven't been proofing hardly any of the symbruary fics and I have this feeling like that's gonna be extra obvious on this one. Good luck.
> 
> This was written for @symbruary Day 19: “what they do at night”. This is one of the ones I earmarked to continue my Venom/Morbius fic ayyy. If you’re like “what about Monster Metropolis, did they ever hang out,” my answer is, shrug. like every time Venom visits Morbius is out due to bad luck I guess.

Morbius had gotten caught outside after morning where the nearest shelter was Eddie's apartment. Eddie and the symbiote had let him in, had him hide in the bathroom while they duct taped a blanket over the bedroom window—"we've been meaning to get a blackout curtain but keep putting it off"—and let him spend the day asleep in their room while they were out.

He emerged from his tomb at about six, to find his hosts watching TV in the living room. He thanked them profusely, ended up getting sucked into a conversation with them for several hours, and ultimately they both got absorbed in a movie about, as far as Morbius could tell, the ghost of a shark seeking revenge for its death.

It wasn't a very good movie. If Morbius was being honest with himself, he was mainly watching it because he could fight back the feeling that he was overstaying his welcome as long as the movie was still going.

A little past ten, as a commercial break started, Eddie shifted forward on his seat like he was preparing to stand. "I should get to sleep," he said; which Morbius was willing to accept as a subtle hint that he should be leaving, until Eddie said, "Yell if we're not back by the time the commercials are over."

Did they only sleep for two minutes at a time? "Sure."

Eddie retreated into his bedroom; and Morbius sat there uncertainly for the next few minutes, wondering whether the instruction to call him back after the commercials had been some kind of joke.

Until Venom came loping back into the living room and flopped back in their original spot just before Morbius had to find out. "Hi." They gave him a fangy grin.

"Hello again. Decided to slip into something more comfortable?" Maybe Venom was Eddie's pajamas. Maybe he was only getting ready for bed but staying up until the movie was over.

Venom gave Morbius a blank look. After a moment, they said, "Eddie had to sleep, but he wants to know how the movie ends, so I'm watching it for him."

Watching it _for—?_ Morbius jolted in surprise. "You're the symbiote?" he said. "I'm—having a conversation with the symbiote?"

"Yes!" The symbiote's grin widened.

Morbius smiled back. "Well! It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"Already met," the symbiote pointed out. "A lot of times."

"I—yes, I know, but—I've only ever spoken to you filtered through Eddie. We've never directly met." He supposed the symbiote already knew _him,_ didn't it? It had him at a distinct disadvantage.

The symbiote drew back slightly, clearly puzzling that over. After a moment, it said, "Eddie is half of me. Venom is we both combined. You have met most of me."

And yet Morbius had already learned something new about how the symbiote saw itself. Still, he said, "Then it's good to meet the rest of you." He nodded toward the bedroom. "Is Eddie asleep in there, then? Should we turn the volume down?"

"Eddie asleep _here._ " Venom held out one hand and the symbiote's skin slid sideways off of Eddie's, leaving two slightly overlapped hands with fingers interlocked, before the symbiote covered Eddie's hand again.

"Oh." Morbius tried to figure out what to say to that bizarre display and came up blank.

"Can keep the noise from bothering him," the symbiote said; and then, as another segment of shark vengeance started on the TV, it flopped back in its seat, the edges of its thighs and back oozing out relaxedly on the upholstery, and watched with great interest.

Morbius settled uneasily back in his own seat, watching the gory carnage on the screen askance and trying not to let his appetite get too high, trying not to let the feeling that he was overstaying his welcome creep up any higher as the image of Eddie and the symbiote's intertwined hands flashed through his mind.

During a lull in the on-screen violence, the symbiote abruptly said, "We like you."

Morbius's heart leaped into his throat. "I beg your pardon?"

"Eddie likes you and I like you."

His heart leaped into his throat again.

"Eddie is nervous to tell you," the symbiote went on blithely. "He wants to wait for a 'good time.' Think this is a good time. Watching a good movie and you're here." It paused. "Eddie didn't think it's good. He thinks the writing is dumb and the cinematography is bad. But he still wants to know how it ends."

Oh, so neither of them had been enjoying the movie. Great. "He could have changed the channel if he didn't like it, I wouldn't have minded."

" _I_ like it. The shark eats everyone! Creatively!" The symbiote flashed a rather shark-like smile itself. "Plus, Eddie was using it as an excuse to let you stay later."

If Morbius's heart kept jumping into his throat like this it was going to come out of his mouth. "Oh."

"Think 'want you to stay' is a good enough excuse to let you stay," the symbiote said firmly. "Don't understand how you humans take so long to start acting like you like each other once you do. Did you know that after humans fall in love they can take _months_ to move in with each other? Even _years!_ "

As it happened, being human himself, Morbius _did_ already know that. "How long does your kind take?"

"Depends on the pore sizes to squeeze into," the symbiote said. "With humans, about three seconds."

"Three seconds from falling in love?"

"Yes!"

Oh, well, that _would_ make the human system look slow. Maybe they had a longed courting period to compensate? "How long did it take you to fall in love with Eddie?"

"Six seconds!"

Never mind that theory. From strangers to married in under ten seconds. That actually explained a lot about who Venom was as a person. "Humans... don't move that fast."

"Eddie did with _me,_ " the symbiote said smugly. "But, Eddie explained. Humans can't see in each other's minds. Humans learn about each other slowly, figure out who to trust. A human can like an other without knowing if the other likes him back. Understand this." It nodded. "But _don't_ understand why humans don't just _tell_ each other when they like each other so they can find out. Instead you sit and wonder and try to guess! Humans invented language for a _reason!_ " It pointed at Morbius. "Do you like us, too

Oh. He should have seen that coming. He fought down his nerves—what did he have to lose, he'd already received an affirmative from Venom—and said, "Er—yes. I do."

"Good!" The symbiote paused. "Which kind of like?"

Nope, he was not answering that one directly. The symbiote was the one pressing the pedal to the metal on this conversation, Morbius wasn't about to take the wheel. "Which kind are we talking about?"

The symbiote actually had to ponder that a moment. (During which several actors screamed on the TV. Morbius had almost forgotten that was playing.) Finally, it said, "Eddie and I are married. That's the top kind of love. You're not getting that far." Before Morbius had a chance to figure out how disappointed he was that whatever arrangement they were discussing capped out below marriage (he hadn't even been thinking about marriage before now!), the symbiote went on, "Under that there's the love where humans want to always be near each other but not combined into one person. We don't like you that much yet. But we could maybe someday. If you keep being nice to us."

So by the symbiote's (and Eddie's?) standards, "marriage" just meant full symbiosis. That was the only thing off the table. Morbius hadn't wanted that on the table in the first place. "I think we're in about the same place."

"Then we can date!"

The symbiote just moved right along, didn't it? All this time, whenever Morbius had attempted to picture the unseen unheard symbiote listening in on his and Eddie's conversations, he'd been picturing some sort of inky black wisp, a thing thin and insubstantial, inscrutable and incomprehensible; an impartial celestial observer of human nature, something wise by virtue of its sheer longevity and wide travel but terribly shy.

Instead, within a few minutes of meeting the symbiote, what he'd gotten was the full muscly mass of Venom talking about how it could meet someone, fall in love, and get married in under ten seconds, and was baffled and frustrated that most humans didn't work the same.

To think, all the times he'd spoken to Venom and he'd never gotten a glimpse at this personality. "Yes. We _should_ date." Preferably with some arrangement that would let Morbius talk to both of them instead of just Eddie. (Was he dating _both_ of them now? Was he _dating_ them now? Ten minutes ago he'd thought he didn't have a shot with them.)

"Great! Let's go!" Venom stood and pointed at the TV, and one finger shot out several feet long to punch the power button.

"What—you mean right now? Isn't Eddie still asleep?"

"Eddie can keep sleeping! Can do anything with his body at night except change it, get in trouble, or spend money. Have to wake him before doing those. Eddie said."

Morbius mentally added "perform any acts more lewd than a closed-mouth peck on the lips" to the list, because at this point he had no idea how fast he ought to expect the symbiote to go.

Did he have any plans for the night? He supposed he didn't. "Okay. A date. Let's. I... haven't been on a date in quite a while."

"Eddie and I go on dates all the time!" Venom headed to the door and Morbius followed, trying not to think too hard about the fact that Eddie was asleep underneath the symbiote's skin. "We usually go out for dinner."

"Dinner isn't a very romantic occasion for me, I'm afraid."

"That's fine," the symbiote said cheerfully. It grabbed up the apartment key on the way out, and after locking the door stuck the key to its side, where it got absorbed under its skin. "We can fight crime, too!"

Morbius was pretty sure that would lead to a dinner date after all. "How about a movie?"

It belatedly occurred to him that they'd just _been_ watching a movie; but the symbiote enthusiastically said, "Love going to movies! We know a 24 hour theater nearby. _Real_ theater, not one for dirty movies. We can sneak in exit so Eddie doesn't have to wake up."

Morbius wondered how the symbiote was going to explain in the morning when Eddie asked how the movie they'd originally been watching had ended. "All right. Let's go."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Original post available on [tumblr](https://ckret2.tumblr.com/post/190921491352/olympic-gold-medalist-in-speed-dating). Comments/reblogs there are very welcome (as are comments here)!


	5. this is a tribute to another fancomic go read that fancomic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a bonus chapter posted out of order. I posted it out of order because it's not TECHNICALLY part of the rest of this fic's continuity but like, it's also a Venom/Morbius ficlet so it's going in this series too, but I saved it to the end of the month to add.
> 
> This was written for @symbruary Day 14: “favourite fanwork”. My favorite fanwork is [this comic](https://ckret2.tumblr.com/post/185295585757/the-venom-morbius-team-up-comic-marvel-refuses) by [@eabevella](https://eabevella.tumblr.com/).
> 
> It’s got everything you could possibly want: a Morbius & Venom team up; tributes to/borrowing from the Costa run and The Hunger; Symby finally getting back at Eddie for that awful traffic joke; Morbius and Symby empathizing over their shared experimentation trauma; the simple fact that somebody has empathized with Symby at all; a Venomorbius design that takes both of their Edgy Goth 90s Aesthetics and ratchets them up to maximum; Morbius and Venom sympathetically comparing their hungers to each other; strategically-covered naked Eddie crotches; homoeroticism involving Symby tongue; and also it’s a fully-drawn fully-colored comic, like damn.
> 
> I’m committed to writing a ficlet for every single prompt this month, so I wrote a totally unauthorized sequel. It’s not as good as the actual comic. Go read the comic.

“I wanted to apologize for stirring up such horrible memories for your other,” Morbius said.

Eddie looked up at him. “That’s funny,” he said. “My other’s been wanting to apologize to you for the same thing.”

“It already apologized once.”

“For the hunger. It sees this as separate. It tends to be thorough with its apologies.” Eddie scooted over, implicitly giving Morbius room to sit next to him—not that there was anyone else sitting on the edge of the building crowding them for space.

Morbius accepted the invitation, sitting beside him on the cold concrete ledge.

“As the neutral party in this apology session,” Eddie said, “I don’t think either one of you needs to apologize. Sometimes those intense blended memories just happen when two people are in the same head. When memories and emotions overlap, they just… spill out together. Especially if you don’t have much shared experience in filtering those emotions yet.”

“You sound like you’re speaking from experience.”

“Spider-Man.”

“Ah. Right. That was your thing for…” Morbius trailed off awkwardly. “… A while.”

Eddie grimaced. “In hindsight, we were… a _little_ excessive.”

Morbius shrugged. “Spider-Man’s something of a self-righteous hypocrite, anyway.”

“ _Thank_ you!” Eddie flung his hands up dramatically. “It feels like you and the Daily Bugle are the only ones besides us who see it! But no. No, we’re not wasting any more emotional energy on him. He’s not worth it.” Eddie paused. “But if he ever starts harassing you for absolutely no reason and you’re in our neighborhood, give us a shout.”

“Likewise.”

Eddie beamed. “While we’re on the subject of that little rescue you two pulled off—I’ve gotta ask. What was up with that lick?”

Morbius’s shoulders stiffened. “Ah.”

“Just out of curiosity, whose idea was that?”

“Er. It was a mutual… We—I—we got a little… overexcited.”

Eddie laughed. “That’s what it said! I half expected you to try to frame my other.”

“I can take responsibility for my own indiscretions,” Morbius mumbled.

“If it thought I’d consider it an indiscretion, it wouldn’t have gone along with it.”

“Good,” Morbius said; paused, thought about the implications of that, and said more firmly, “ _Good_.” He nodded. "But the traffic joke was the symbiote’s idea. I refuse to take the blame for that.“

"Ha! No, I know. Inside joke,” Eddie said. “It’s fun, isn’t it?”

“The joke?”

“The tongue.”

“Oh.” Morbius cleared his throat. “Well,” he said. “Yes.”

“I don’t get to enjoy it from the receiving end very often. I prefer having all those fangs in my mouth where they belong, but getting to look at them coming at me is a rare treat,” Eddie said. “You wanna know what it feels like on the receiving end?”

Morbius’s head jerked as he turned to stare at Eddie. Eddie’s face was only half human now, and the humanity was rapidly decreasing as Venom’s visage flowed over him from the mouth outward.

“Sure,” Morbius said, very calmly and also slightly higher pitched than usual.

The symbiote reached for Morbius quicker than the rest of Venom, long black strings wrapping around his wrists and throat, twining between his fingers, curling around his jaw.

The three of them tangled together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Original post available on [tumblr](https://ckret2.tumblr.com/post/190832421322/this-was-written-for-symbruary-day-14-favourite). Comments/reblogs there are very welcome (as are comments here)!


End file.
